Finding Eden by K.R.S. McEntire reminded me a bit of Fallout meets Resident Evil meets Shadowhunters mashed into one.
Fallout because it’s a dangerous dystopian world where the two main characters, Lilah and Adam, are forced to survive in. This world is a dark version of the future, where you do not leave your settlement due to mutants and other dangers roaming this world.
Why Resident Evil? It was fast and action paced and gave me the feeling that I was playing a video game if you catch what I mean? The alternating viewpoints from each character gave me a burst of adrenaline at different points in the story.
Shadowhunters? Well its a well built fantasy world setting. I could imagine the world pretty solidly when I read this book. This world was unique to me and memorable.
Finding Eden Review
The story
The story follows two characters, Lilah and Adam. Lilah is a girl that is trying to find sanctuary in a paradise known as ‘Eden’, a place where mutants can find sanctuary.
Adam joins the wardens, an organisation responsible for hunting down mutants and keeping dystopian America safe. Their fates collide as they encounter one another in the hopes of finding ‘Eden’. As a reader we follow their journey.Â
Setting
The setting is dystopian America, primarily Chicago. As mentioned before, I had very ‘Fallout 4’ vibes as I was reading the book. Citizens stay to their own settlements and hardly ever go out because of the ‘mutant’ danger. They do not always know what mutants are and therefore are very wary of them.
Their government protects its citizens via the ‘Wardens’, soldiers designated to hunt out mutants and ensure the safety of people. I quite liked that ‘credits’ were used as a currency for this world ( I really like credits as a dystopian vibe). Simply put – the world is dangerous!
Characters
We follow two main characters, Lilah and Adam. Lilah is a ‘mutant’ and is forced to leave her home in order to find a safe haven in a place called ‘Eden’. She does this for the safety of her family. Adam is a ‘Warden’ and his purpose is to patrol outside his settlement with his companion, another ‘Warden’. Lilah and Adam encounter the other in the search of ‘Eden’, where their stories come together.
The author took time making these humans believable for several reasons :
- They have weakness’ which we love, for example Adam has a fear of heights
- They do not think they are the hero, therefore they can make stupid decisions and live – for example, Lilah is very cautious in meeting Adam and even though she has mutant powers, she is not stupid about overpowering two armed men ( a common annoyance for me with YA sometimes).
The Good Points
- Solid characters – clear motives
- Well built world – nice post apocalyptic world
- Alternating viewpoints from 2 characters – Like that makes the story flow nice
- Standalone but part of a series. I could pick this book up without having read the first one ( which I did not) but I could navigate the world easily. There was not much repetition from what happened in the first book ( as far as I could notice) so it was nice to pick up and read. We need more series standalones.
- Main character – unique, I have not read much about mutants before so refreshing fantasy ( rather than bog standard vampire, werewolf e.c.t)
I would have liked to have seen
- Maps? While I read this on the kindle and I would have trouble seeing them anyway ( unless you upgrade to the oasis), I would have liked some maps to show me where the characters are going, what environment they are in? I am terrible at geography so a route the characters were doing was hard for me to imagine at times.
- More on Lilah’s backstory, other characters?
Final thoughts
There needs to be more series in YA where each book can be read as a standalone story. I was able to pick up this book without knowledge of the previous book and follow the story perfectly. There was enough content and world building to engage me.
Too many books in YA feel the need to be a series and this can often overwhelm the reader (In particular if I learn there are like 7 books in a series) rather than reel them into the story.
Having a nice urban fantasy/dystopian novel that I can read as a standalone?
Refreshing to say the least.
Looking for more great reviews?
Check out our review of The Selection by Kiera Cass.